We continue today with our review of the Old Testament, discovering the stories of these women and pretending to offer readers a wide range of female names of the Bible If you are looking for one for your babies.
We stayed with David escaping from King Saul and leading a revolution in Hebron, with the goal of being king of a united Israel, for which the prophet Samuel had been anointed as God's elect. In Hebron David will be taking successive wives that will strengthen its position in the region.
The wives in Hebron: Ahinoam, Egla, Maachâ, Haguit and Abital
Ahinoam it is the second of the wives that David takes after having separated from the first, his name comes from the Hebrew Achîno'am, which could be translated as "my brother is kind / happy". There is not much information about her, she had the same name as Saul's wife, but nothing indicates that it was the same person clearly. We are told that it came from the city of Jezrael, one of the places where David, as a guerrilla, settled after fleeing the king. It was Amon's mother.
Other wives David would take while living in Hebron, before being victorious and taking all of Israel, will be Maachâ, daughter of Talmai, king of Gesur, Haguit, Abital Y Egla. The girl Tamar and the beautiful Absalom of Maachâ, Adonías, Haguit, Sefatías, Abital and Itream will be born, by Egla. They relate to small kingdoms and tribes in the area, who joined David.
Their names are barely used today and the translation is complicated. They come from Hebrew verbs that perhaps, at that time, had other meanings that gave meaning to the names.
The name of Maachâ It seems to identify with Miryam. Haguit It means joyful. Abital It comes from the Hebrew "Avital", and would be translated as "fresh" (in the sense of freshness). Egla It comes from the root "igl" in Hebrew which means "rotate" and probably the name would mean "to be surrounded" or "to surround", although it is difficult to know.
When David succeeds in becoming the sole king of Israel they will follow him to Jerusalem and become part of the haren to which other legitimate wives and concubines will join.
As will happen in so many Eastern kingdoms in which the king was polygamous, the problems in succession will be sown with quarrels, murders and uprisings of the children. It is not difficult to imagine courtly intrigues between David's wives and children to increase the influence and get the throne. However, as you probably know, none of the children born to these women will get to inherit David, but will be the son of a Jerosimiltana, Bathsheba, of whom I will tell you the story later.
Abigail
Another of the wives who joined David during his stay in Hebron is better known. Is about Abigail.
Abigail She was not single, or a virgin, and, although it seems she had no children, she was married to a man named Nabal, who lived in the Carmel region. It was a rich man who lived in an area that controlled David's army but refused to pay tribute. David, furious at the opposition, organized a campaign to punish him and was determined to kill him and all his people, taking a bloodbath.
But Abigail She was not willing to let her husband end her life and everyone's life, so she left without saying anything, riding a donkey and carrying gifts to placate the king. Arriving before David he fell on his knees, recognized him as chosen by God and begged him not to let his victory be tarnished with innocent blood.
David was impressed by the woman, there is no doubt. Not only was she courageous and sensible, but she also gave good advice and, in addition, she clearly recognized him as appointed by God. Possibly Abigail, if she was married to a rich man, would belong to a family with a position of influence in the area and, in a sense, offered her an alliance.
Abigail he ended his passionate speech begging the king to remember her, his servant, when the conquest will end, which, perhaps, was a veiled offer of marriage. We don't know what motivated the behavior of Abigail, perhaps fear, perhaps considering that her husband was dangerously silly and being tired of endangering her life and that of her family for not wanting to accept the situation of conquest. We do not know.
But of course she was brave and clever, she knew how to speak to David in a way that calmed him and made him recover the behavior of a king and not a bloodthirsty savage. And saved her people and herself.
When Abigail He returned home and found the husband too drunk to talk to him, since he had been celebrating the party of the sheared. In the morning he told him clearly what he had done and the Bible explains that the man suffered an emotional blow so bad that he did not recover and died a few days later. He gave him a disgust of death, it is not known if by betrayal, by hearing what the wife thought of him, by shame or by anger, the thing is that the poor man fell fulminated.
David learned of the death of his enemy was glad he did not have to fight or harm innocents and, grateful, sent envoys to Abigail proposing marriage, which she, with submissive words, accepts immediately, rides in her ass and leaves with her maids, leaving behind the dead husband and it seems that all his previous life.
From Abigail We won't know much more. She followed her husband to Jerusalem and would give her a son, sometimes called Daniel and other times Kital.
The name of Abigail it comes from the Hebrew words "ab", which means father and "giyl" which is joy, so it could be translated as "father's joy".
Ahinoam, Abigail, Maachâ, Haguit, Abital and Egla they will settle in Jerusalem with King David and they will be joined by Michal, the first abandoned wife, of whom I already speak to you, and, later, the beautiful Bathsheba and the last one, the very young Abisag, the Sunamite.
With this we finished our review of David's first wives, the ones he met while living in Hebron. In the next topic we will continue with your family and offer you new stories of biblical heroines. We hope these Old Testament female names be inspiring and enjoy the stories of these women.
In Babies and more | Female names for babies: Old Testament characters (I), (II) and (III), (IV), (V), VI, VII
